The national charity for new music

International Women's Day 2019: Reviewing the Data

In 2017 Sound and Music made a commitment that “By March 2020, at least 50% of the composers we work with will identify as women”.

In 2019 with one year to go we’re taking a look at the progress so far.

This year we have looked at both those applying to our programmes as well as those selected. We also compared different strands of our work and looked at the differences in representation among older applicants.

Given the findings of this review we can begin to draw some initial conclusions, firstly that to reach our aim of 50:50 by 2020 still more interventions and changes need to be made.

And secondly, much more must be done to understand the pathways taken by female applicants to our programmes. For example the differences between our Summer School and our adult programmes. Where are female composers being discouraged? And what are the barriers to becoming a professional composer?

Through Sound and Music’s campaigning and research such as #CanCompose we hope to begin to understand more about the bigger picture, where gender inequality remains and to further understand how we can support all composers to create great music.

As ever we would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to the wonderful composers and musical creators who we are privileged with and whose work continues to inspire us daily.

Join us this year as we work to #BalanceforBetter

If you’d like to support Sound and Music’s work to champion new music and the work of all British composers and creators you can do so here.